ethnography?

I found the reading from the "Some records on Ethiopia" to be very interesting. It is definitely from a biased religious viewpoint, and I almost get the sense that the man writing this entry is looking for things that don't meet up to the "European Standards" of Christian religion. He is expecting them to be more primative and I get the feeling that he initially didn't believe that their form of christianity is actually working "correctly". We see evidence in some of the subchapters within the account, particularly the section about marriage, "weddings and burials". He is very critical of the way Ethiopian married couples handle adultery and turmoil within a marriage. I found the civil terms that these couples seem to come to quite fascinating. It is unimaginable to us nowadays that two people who are no longer in love or together can live together peacefully. The come to a very equal and fair agreement if they can, and I find this to be quite admirable. Yet the speaker seems to be appalled by the way they handle "holy matrimony". When couples cannot work it out and must be completley seperate from one another, they appear before a judge. The judge can then give them consent to be "free" and they can "marry again whomsoever they please". The speaker calls this "abuse" and blames the cultures innability to completley conform to the "holy faith which is generally accepted". I find it somewhat ironic that he finds the annullment of marriage to be abuse, when often times an unsuccessful marriage is far more "sinful" and abusive. It is very clear that this man has a biased religious point of view and even though he says that he likes the people of Ethiopia, I get the feeling that he doesn't see them as a fully "Christian" Society. I also find the comments that he makes towards the Jewish population of Ethiopia. He approaches and views them with a very similar viewpoint that was prevalent in Europe at the time.